Conference And Convention Planning – Value or Price?

Price is often an issue, after all most corporations do not have endless budgets and some kind of control needs to be implemented.

“I remember a couple of years ago being a visitor at a conference where they invited one of the participants of American Idol to be an entertainer at the event.

First the cost was huge, not only for the actual performance, but travel, security, food and other requirements by the artist. The spending was so high that there was actually very little money left for the rest of the event, which suffered terribly.

Secondly most of the visitors only attended to see their “hero” and soon left after the performance, never to return again, much to the dismay of the speakers.”

Conferences are not about the singers or the entertainment, although I agree that entertainment can be good, the emphasis should not be on promoting the entertainment, but on the quality of the speakers and conference content.

Conference And Convention Planning – Ticket Price

Conference And Convention Planning often revolves around the price of the admission tickets, but in my experience visitors will pay handsomely if the quality of the event warrants it.

Improving the value for the attendee is a better way of ensuring quality of visitors.

When the visitor goes home, they should be going home with the WOW factor stamped into their subconscious and not going home feeling cheated or ripped off.

This does not mean putting on high cuisine food, top bands and leather chairs. Of course the facilities should be sufficiently grand, but the content should be of great value.

Conference And Convention Planning – Suppliers

I often see corporations strangling suppliers for the lowest possible price for services and equipment, which in turn leads to lower quality and a lesser experience for the visitor and then they give away a car or some other huge prize to their top management!

This doesn’t inspire the visitor much and is a pathetic attempt at cost cutting in the wrong place. Taking away profit from suppliers is not good business and in the long run creates suffering. Business is meant to make both parties happy not just the corporation.

For event success, more focus should be placed on event value than ticket prices and cutting costs. It is much easier for me to service a contract if I can add value to my client rather than take away profit.

Organizers of events when organizing their conference and convention planning must consider the long term affects of addressing solely the cost of events. The perceived value of an event has much longer term implications for a visitor and it is important for organizers to understand their target markets.